


"Pretty Handy."

by Magicphobic



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-28 16:43:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10139447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magicphobic/pseuds/Magicphobic
Summary: Personal fiction serving as an explanation as to why Nick has 2 full hands in a RP universe with a friend. This story is a lot better than just re-equipping his trench coat.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a quick oneshot for personal reasons regarding my personal Fallout 4 experience. My sole Ev fixes Nicks hand in a more creative way than just re-equiping his overcoat.

It was something that had always been present, so why didn't she notice it until now? Now that she noticed it, she could recall all the times she'd seen him do it. It was just something that went by in passing without a second thought. Said thought would always pass her by until another thought prompted it. “How come, I never see him having any issues?”  
Nick, it was about Nick Valentine. Evelyn had met him awhile ago now, getting help tracking down her now disowned son. Nick had been a good friend to her, they built a strong relationship, and even after his work was done he stuck around. Evelyn didn't mind the company, Nick was a nice enough guy to get along with, snarky remarks aside.  
Well, maybe guy wasn't exactly the right term to be using. Sure he used the pronouns but Nick wasn't human, and you didn't need to be a detective to find that out. He was an early prototype gen 3 Synth, and he did nothing to hide that. Because he did nothing to hide it, it really stuck out and was quite obvious what he was. He wasn't human, he was a machine, simple as that.  
And being a machine meant he didn't get check ups, he wasn't quite as advanced as the passing human gen 3's, and so, instead of check ups, he got tune ups. He was old, at least 100 years old, or so he claimed to be. His wear and tear also showed through, he was missing parts of his face, probably other parts of his body, and his right hand was completely gone, spare for the skeleton base.

His hand. That's probably what stuck out the most. It was just so bare, cold, and un-human like compared to his left hand that was still intact. It never bothered Evelyn before... that was before she started to notice him constantly messing with it every chance he got.  
Evelyn had always wondered how Nick was in such good shape for someone over 100 years old, and still held together quite well throughout her travels. Because she just gave it the benefit of the doubt and payed it no mind in the past, it was only now the thought occurred to her that maybe Nick was struggling to keep up, to keep together, literally.  
A screwdriver, whenever he had one he'd be playing with it, fiddling mostly with is hand. It was so minor that it was easy to pay it no mind at first. But every time he got his hands on a screwdriver, either carried one around or used ones he'd picked up along the way, he'd mess with his hand. Evelyn couldn't count how many times she'd seen him do this. He'd also occasionally take home any oil or coolant they found. The thought completely slipped her mind each time that Nick was a robot and might actually need those things to survive, where as she needed food and water instead.  
But that damned hand and the screwdriver... Now that she noticed it the first time, she couldn't stop noticing whenever he did it. It was constant, 24/7. If they weren't doing anything important he was fixing his damn hand, either that or smoking. At the office, at the base, at Sanctuary, a pit stop while Evelyn picked a place clean, pretending to tinker at a workbench when Evelyn was working on her armour at the station. It was more than a simple quirk, one of his quirks would be his smoking habit and sarcastic remarks... no this hand business was bothering him. Evelyn had to wonder how long it'd been bothering him.

Even now as they were stopped for the night in an abandoned house, fire set up, he was tinkering with his hand again. Evelyn was watching him this whole time. He'd move his hand, examine it for a minute, cuss something under his breath and then go back at it again with the screwdriver.

She finally spoke up and addressed him. “Doesn't that get tiresome?”  
“Hm?” Nick looked up from his work. “Doesn't what?”  
“That.” Evelyn pointed to his hand and the screwdriver in his other. “I only now noticed it but, you're always messing with your hand.”  
“Well, what do you expect?” Nick questioned. “I'm an old Synth, wasn't made with the top quality standards, gotta keep together over the years somehow.”  
“Yeah but, having to constantly fix things like that... It'd drive me mad sooner or later.”  
Nick chuckled. “I guess after so many years you just get used to this sorta thing.”  
“Does it hurt?” Evelyn asked him.  
“Not really, no... I assume to a human driving a sharp metal object into your wrist constantly would be a bit bothersome, but to me I don't feel anything.”  
“But you feel pain?”  
“To a degree maybe, though I'm starting to think when I'm shot with a bullet that's just a natural reaction to recoil at least a little bit.” Nick shifted and pointed the driver at her. “What's with all the questions? You're not getting philosophical on me and trying to figure out how everything works are you? Remember the last time we went through this? I am not going through that again with you.”  
“No, nothing like that... I'm just curious.” Evelyn responded in defence. “I've given up on trying to understand how sentience works in machines, as long as I know it's there is all that matters.”

Evelyn suddenly stood up and walked around the fire, sitting down next to Nick. “What's wrong with your hand anyway?”  
“I'm old.” Nick responded.  
“Aside from that, smartass.” Evelyn rolled her eyes, gently taking Nick's right hand in her own and examining it. “What's actually the issue?”  
“The old trigger keeps locking up.” Nick commented, watching as this prompted Evelyn to now examine his fingers. “I'm sure it's just from overusing guns for so long.”  
“How does the rest of your hand work?” Evelyn questioned, turning his hand over to look at the back of it.  
“It's alright... feels a bit loose at the wrist sometimes, I keep tightening it in fear that it'll just fall right off. Then I'd be all left.”  
“That'd be funny if this was your left hand.” Evelyn smirked, picking up on the statement. “Just operated it normally for me.”  
“Like this?” Nick pulled back, moving his wrist about and bending his hand up and down, opening and closing his fingers, the index finger not closing down all the way.  
“Hm, I see.” Evelyn frowned watching the movements, and fixating on that one broken finger. “Hand me that screwdriver.”  
Nick handed it over to her, allowing Evelyn to take his hand again and start messing with it. “Y'know, speaking of not noticing things... You're pretty handy with this sorta thing, aren't you?”  
“Heh, got one in that time.” Evelyn chuckled slightly at his pun. “But yes, from messing with my Power Armour and various weapons, I sorta learned how to work with hardware... still not 100% a master with the actual programming and tech, but y'know how it is.”  
“Yeah, I never really noticed until now how much you work on that kinda stuff.”  
“Just like how I never noticed how much your hand bothered you.”

“It never really bothered me, so to speak.” Nick responded, watching as Evelyn worked on him, already feeling his sticky fingers becoming a bit more firm but yet loose at the same time.  
“I'm sure it did at first, but as you said, you get used to it.” Evelyn replied. “Also... you don't really take care of yourself on the field, y'know that?”  
“What do you mean?” Nick questioned. “It's not like I purposely try to get shot or anything.”  
“No, but you're not very careful.” Evelyn stated, turning Nick's hand back over and pointing something out to him on the framework. “Your hand's literally broken Nick, screws missing and metal framing cracked. It's not going to get much better unless you get it welded.”  
“Ah...” Nick pulled back, holding his hand now and looking at it. “Forgot about that... I'm not even sure what I got that from. A Deathclaw maybe?”  
“You're kinda shit outta luck.” Evelyn sighed and handed him back the screwdriver. “Keeping it from falling off is all you can do but if you keep operating like that, you will loose that hand, it'll break completely. That's why the finger is sticking.”  
“Hey now, you said it just needs to be welded.” Nick looked back at her. “It can't be that bad.”  
“Well, do you see a working welder around here anywhere?” Evelyn looked around the rubble that surrounded them. “Besides you need a specialist to that kinda fine tuning...”  
“So what are you saying? I'm out of work until I find someone to fix me up?” Nick frowned, looking away.  
“I don't want to carry the guilt of knowing you got damaged because of me dragging you along to something you're not equipped to handle.”  
“Alright, now you're just being mean.” Nick looked back at Evelyn with an eye roll.  
Evelyn sighed. “I don't want to loose my partner, I mean I love Hancock and all but sometimes even I need a break from travelling with him. That's what I've got you for.”  
“Well, that's good to hear, but you said it yourself, I can't function with a broken or missing hand.” Nick responded. “How am I suppose to fix this.”  
“...We'll think of something.”

Evelyn stood up again, and looked around their small campsite. There was a few abandoned tables and chairs, a small broken dresser, stairs they couldn't climb to check what was upstairs, and a dead Synth that was shoved in a corner.  
The campsite was in a small building just outside of a large production factory that they had explored today and cleared out. Naturally, like many other places they still haven't been in the Commonwealth, it was infested with a bunch of long forgotten Gen 1 and 2 Synths. The Synth in the corner was one that must of wandered out, and was either killed before they got there, or had ran out of power and died. Either way it didn't attack them so Evelyn named him Steve and moved him to the corner out of the way while they set up camp for the night.  
She looked Steve over and then looked back at Nick. He was back to messing with his hand with the screwdriver once again. Suddenly it clicked. Nick was a Synth too, and all he was in need of was a new hand...

“Christ! We didn't even check to see if it was actually dead, y'know!” Nick looked over at Evelyn as the loud crunch of metal caught his attention.  
“Aren't you the one who said you guys don't feel pain?” Evelyn looked over her shoulder while she pegged Steve down with one foot, and gave a strong yank on his right hand twisting it and snapping a few wires.  
“What are you even doing?” Nick questioned, standing up now to face her.  
“Getting you a new hand.” Evelyn replied, taking out a switch blade and cutting what wires that remained, ripping the hand off the dead Synth completely and allowing the arm to hit the ground with a loud thunk.  
“Are you serious?” Nick continued to question her. “That's like... That's like cutting your hand off and replacing it with another human's hand.”  
“Well, he's not going to need it anymore.” Evelyn commented, walking over to Nick with the Synth's severed hand. “And you're going to need it.”  
“...I suppose you make a point...” Nick admitted, shifting his eyes to the side. “But what if it doesn't work?”  
“It should work, you had the brain of dead man hooked up to your head with more advanced Synth tech... I'm sure an more older version would also work with you.” Evelyn explained. “Now c'mon, hand me that driver again.”  
“Are you sure about this?” Nick hesitated.  
“Do you trust me?” Evelyn stopped and looked Nick directly in the eyes.  
There was a noticeable moment of silence between the two.  
“Well... we made it this far...” Nick sighed and extended his broken hand to her, along with handing over the screwdriver.  
“Alright, hold still.”

Evelyn worked skillfully and quickly, managing to disconnect all the wires in his hand and let them dangle. Nick quickly discovered that he could feel things to a degree as he now felt like he didn't have a hand at all. The hand fell limp in her hands, and with a few more tweaks of the screwdriver, she managed to get it to pop off completely.  
“Whoa, that's... that's weird.” Nick commented, trying to send signals to move his hand and nothing happening, a weight gone from his arm for a short while. “Seeing you hold it like that, really weird.”  
“Do you want to keep it for anything?” Evelyn questioned.  
“No, not really. I mean if you're replacing it why would I-”  
Clunk.  
“You really don't waste time with these kinda things, do you.” Nick frowned, looking over her shoulder at his old hand that was tossed to the floor.  
“If you don't need it, you don't need it.” Evelyn replied, and then left Nick for a moment to mess with the Synth hand she had.  
Evelyn dug her screwdriver into the wrist of the hand and removed some of the loose and frayed wires from the inside, finding where all the ports were and then taking Nick's arm again. She took Nick's wires and plugged them into the ports, shortening them where needed and keeping them in place with a few spare bobby pins, before jamming the hand back on into the socket, twisting it into place and making sure it connected to the rest of his arm.  
“Give it a go.” Evelyn replied, making sure the hand was secure and stepping back.  
“All or nothing.” Nick replied, lifting his arm up so he could see his new hand.

Nick looked just as amazed as Evelyn was pleased as the hand responded almost instantly to his movements. He could turn his wrist, move his hand up and down without any problems, and also close his hand into a fist completely, with no fingers sticking this time. He opened it again and looked back at Evelyn with a small smile.  
“Well I'll be...”  
“You're welcome.” Evelyn smiled back at him.  
“Thanks... It's been awhile since I had an actual functioning hand like my left one...” Nick replied, continuing to test the new hand out. “I owe you for this one.”  
“You don't owe me anything.” Evelyn replied, putting a hand on his shoulder. “The fact that you won't be needing this anymore is enough for me.” She held the screwdriver up.  
“Heh, no I guess I won't be needing it anymore.”  
Ca-clank.  
“Hey! Just because I don't need it for fixing my hand anymore doesn't mean it's not useful! It's a perfectly good tool!” Nick frowned, eyeing the screwdriver that was now tossed onto the floor with his old hand.  
“You've got a new hand now, use it and go pick it up if you want it.” Evelyn chuckled and headed back to her spot by the fire.  
“Ugh, remind me again why I thought it was a good idea to start travelling with you?” Nick sighed and went to collect the screwdriver.  
“Because, Nicky... two hands are better than one.” Evelyn grinned widely at him.  
“Heads! The expression is heads, you smartass.” Nick chuckled and sat back down again too, across from Evelyn. “Nah, but... I think the real reason is that, you're a pretty good friend, y'know that?”  
Evelyn smiled softly. “Wanna know another reason?”  
“What's that?”  
“Not only am I a pretty good friend... but me and you, we make a pretty good team, wouldn't you think so?”  
Nick cocked a smile. “Yeah, that we do, partner.”


End file.
